Guide To Sig-making with Photoshop (non-transparent)

[omenra]

Hello there everyone. As you may know, I do make sigs for everyone. But a large amount of people who have requested sigs have admitted that they like making their own sigs, but do not know how to.

As a result I decided to make a guide that explains how to make a basic signature image using Photoshop.

You do not need to be familiar at all with Photoshop to use this guide, I try to explain everything thoroughly.

Step 1
First, open up Photoshop and go to
"File > New"
To create a new canvas. Set the size to 500 pixels by 200 pixels.
Make sure the background is on white, and the mode is RGB.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/Newdoc.jpg

Step 2
Now you have a blank canvas. It should look like this:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/blankcanvas.jpg
Note that the "Background" layer is locked. You cannot do anything with a locked layer.

Step 3
Now we are going to duplicate that annoying locked "Background" layer so it will become unlocked and therefore useful.
Right click on the background layer, and press "Duplicate Layer"
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/duplayer.jpg

Step 4
After we duplicate the layer, we can delete the old locked "Background" layer. Right click on it, and select "Delete Layer".
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dellayer.jpg

Step 5
Now that we have our background layer unlocked and workable, we need to open up the picture we're going to use in a separate file. We are also going to select the "Move tool" (circled in red) to use in our next step.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/openpic.jpg

Step 6
Using the "Move tool", we click the big picture and drag it onto our blank 500X200 canvas we made earlier. You can now close the picture you just opened, or simply minimize it.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dragpic.jpg

Step 7
Wow. A little big. That's no problem though, we'll just scale it down.
Go to Edit > Transform > Scale. This brings up a gray lined box around your image.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/edittransform.jpg

Step 8
To scale your picture down, go to one of the white boxes in the corner of you image, making sure that you see a little diagonal line with two arrow heads when you hover over it.
Click and drag inward, while simultaneously pressing "SHIFT". By pressing shift, you will preserve the proportionality of the image when you resize it. You should now have a nice small image.
YOU MUST CLICK THE GREEN CHECK WHEN YOU ARE DONE TRANSFORMING. IF YOU DO NOT, IT WILL NOT LET YOU CLICK ANYTHING ELSE.
NOTE: If you can't find the corners of the little box around your image, either zoom out by pressing "CTRL" and "-", or go to the blue bar above the image, go to the corner, and pull the bar away from the image. This will give you gray area around the image (as seen in the picture) and you should be able to find the edge.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/finishscale.jpg

Step 9
Now we are going to make a gradient for the background. Photoshop does come with basic gradients, but it's so much nicer if you make your own. It also gives you more freedom and originality with the color choices and blending options.
First you want to select the gradient tool. It is circled in red in the picture.
Notice that at the top, the toolbar changed to a gradient toolbar.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/gradienttoolbar.jpg

Step 10
Double-click on the black and white gradient on the toolbar at the top of your screen, and the "Gradient Editor" will pop up. This is the place that allows you to create your own gradient.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/gradienteditor.jpg

Step 11
We want to look below, where we see the plain black and white gradient. The little tabs underneath the gradient are called "stops". Double click the first stop, and a little color menu will pop up. Let's choose a pinkish color for the first one. Press "OK".
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/firststop.jpg

Step 12
Now that the first stop has a pink color, let's make the second stop a purplish color. But oh wait, there are only two stops. We have to make another one.
Move your mouse right underneath the gradient bar, and simply click to create a stop. You can create as many of these as you want, but for now let's start with one. Double-click this stop and choose a purple color.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/secondstop.jpg

Step 13
Our last stop can be a lighter pink than the first one. Just click the very last stop and choose your color.
Now that all of our stops are chosen, we can save this new gradient. Next to the text "Custom", there should be a button that says "New". Press this button to create your new gradient. You can name it if you wish to do so. Now you can exit out of the Gradient Editor.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/finalgradient.jpg

Step 14
So we created our gradient, but before we can put it in, we need to make a new layer to put it on.
Go down to your layers palette on the bottom right hand corner of your screen, and right click the little piece of paper at the very bottom (circled in red in the picture).
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/newlayer.jpg

Step 15
Making sure that your new layer is selected, click the gradient tool once more. Be sure that your new gradient is being featured in the top tool bar, and click and drag your mouse over your signature.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/draggradient.jpg

Step 16
Uh oh, now the gradient is taking up the whole screen and we can't see the picture.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/gradientcover.jpg

To fix this, simply go to the layers palette and drag the gradient layer underneath the picture layer.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/draglayer.jpg

Now it should look like this:
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/gradientbehindpic.jpg

[omenra]

Step 17
Now that we have our gradient set up, let's focus on the picture.
As much as I like the picture, I really only want the girl as the focus. So let's select the eraser and get rid of some of the background (the eraser is circled in red on the picture).
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/eraser.jpg

Step 18
There is a really cool effect we can do here, simply by using the picture over again. We're going to select the "Move tool" (the arrow shaped tool we used before, circled in red in the picture), but this time we will press "ALT" while we drag the picture over to the right hand side of the signature. This will duplicate the picture of the girl, making an exact copy that we can use.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/duplicatepic.jpg

Step 19
So now we have two girls. To make a difference between them, we are going to resize the duplicate image, and make it very very big. Do another Edit > Transform > Scale, remembering to hold SHIFT down as you pull outwards.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/bigduplicate.jpg

Step 20
Drag the new big layer behind the original, because it is just going to be a background element.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dragbigpicdown.jpg

Step 21
The big picture is so bright, that it draws too much attention away from the original picture. Let's make it softer by lowering its opacity.
On the layers palette, select your big picture's layer (the 'copy' layer), and slide the opacity down (it is circled in red in the picture).
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/loweropacitybigpic.jpg

Step 22
Now it is a little softer, but I still want to soften up the edges more.
Click on the "Eraser" tool again, and look up at the eraser toolbar.
We are going to lower the opacity on the eraser (the opacity bar is circled in red), and erase around some of the edges of the big picture. This makes it a lot softer and more blended.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/eraselowopacitybigpic.jpg

Step 23
Let's do the same thing with the original picture. Select the original picture's layer, and, keeping the same lowered opacity, erase around the edge of the original picture.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/lowopacityregpic.jpg

Step 24
It is about time to start adding in the brush tool, but we should really have a separate layer for our brushwork. So right click on the little piece of paper like earlier, and create a new layer.
Select this layer, then select the brush tool (circled in red).
For this, we want to load the "Faux Finish Brushes", so look up towards the brush toolbar at the top of the screen. Click the down arrow next to the current brush, and in that drop down menu there should be a small arrow pointing to the right inside of a circle. Click that, and you should see "Faux Finish Brushes". Click that and it will load that set of brushes.
It is up to you what brushes you want to use, you can either use the ones that I did or select some of your own.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/lowopacityregpic.jpg

When you use the brush tool, you can change the colors by double clicking on the two boxes in the left hand tool bar. The front box, or the higher box, is always the color the brush will use. I selected white.

Just experiment around a little, choosing several different brushes to complete your custom brush work.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/morebrush.jpg

[omenra]

Step 25
Now that we've done our brushwork, it's time to add the text.
Click on the "Text tool" (circled in red) and select your font from the drop down menu.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/textmenu.jpg

Step 26
Click anywhere on your image and start typing!
Usually you will need to resize your text, so to do this, you can either:
1. Highlight the text and select a size from the drop down menu
or
2. Highlight the text and hover your mouse over the icon next to the menu (has a little T and a big T) and click and drag your mouse to the right or left for a more accurate resizing.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/resizetext.jpg

Step 27
To pick your text color, just click on the color box on the text toolbar at the top of the screen. It will come up with a color picker, and just select your favorite color.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/textcolor.jpg

Step 28
I chose white for my text color, but it is a little hard to read. So we're going to add a little shadow behind it.
Right click the text layer in the layers palette, and choose "Blending Options"
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/rightclickblending.jpg

Step 29
In this new window that pops up, select "Drop Shadow", making sure the box to the left of the words is checked.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dropshadow1.jpg

Step 30
Now play around with this for a little while, and come up with a shadow that looks best for your sig. Make sure the box that says "Preview" is checked, so that you can see what changes you're making.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dropshadowfinal.jpg

Step 31
Our sig looks great now, however the background is still a little boring. So we're going to duplicate the text layer we just made, by using the "Move tool" while pressing "ALT", and clicking and dragging the text layer to a different spot on the sig.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/duplicateenlargetext.jpg

I also resized the text a little, by just selecting a size from the drop down menu.

Step 32
With the big text, it looks more interesting but it is a little glaring. So let's lower the opacity on the text, just like we did before with the big picture of the girl.
Make sure the new text layer is behind the old text layer.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/loweropacitytext.jpg

Step 33
With this, I think our sig is pretty much done. However, I still want to add a border around the edge, to make it look a little cleaner.
To do this, we need to merge all the layers together.
Go to the Layers menu and select "Flatten Image".
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/flattenimage.jpg

Step 34
Oh no! Now we have another locked layer that is completely useless!
You know what to do with locked layers....duplicate the locked "Background" layer, to get a copy that we can work with.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/dupbacklayer.jpg

Step 35
Making sure the "copy" layer is selected, right click on it and choose "Blending Options". This time you want to select "Stroke", wayyyy down at the bottom.
Play around with the different options in Stoke, but MAKE SURE that the "Position" is set to "Inside" otherwise the border will not show up.
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/stroke.jpg

You are finished!!
Ta daa! You now have a great sig that you can use on the forums. To upload it to an image hosting website, you just have to save it as a JPEG or a PNG file.
Keep in mind that this is not the only way to make a sig, it is simply one way. I hope you guys learned a lot, and enjoyed the tutorial :)
http://i285.photobucket.com/albums/ll46/omenra_photo/sigmaking%20guide%20non%20transparent/final.jpg

Things to keep in mind:

1. You are not limited to the brushes on Photoshop! There are many people who create their own brushes, and are happy to share them! Go on websites where people post their artwork (deviantART is one of them) and you will probably find some pretty cool brushes.
2. I encourage you to explore Photoshop by yourself; this isn't a default guide for making sigs, it was simply an exercise to show people where to start and give them some things to think about.
3. Look at other signatures! You will get some of your best ideas from other peoples' work! And in trying to duplicate the desired effect, you will probably mess up and create your own effect!
4. Do not be afraid to click buttons! You have a history palette for a reason, so if you do not like it you can pretend it never happened.
5. Have fun with it! Photoshop silly pictures of your friends! Make ridiculous sigs! Do whatever!

[SeventhMagpie]

Wow good guide :D
I'm getting to know photoshop (Well PS Elements but its the same thing xD) at the moment and this has really helped me see some of the things I can do with it xD
+rep for you :)

[omenra]

Thanks ^^
I know PS Elements is a little different, but i think the gist is the same :P

[steelwind18]

nice guide. well i dont have photoshop. but ima +rep u for the heck of it and the good guide. nice work it helped ppl out. (well maybe only saturne) o_O

[omenra]

Thank you ^^
XD and hey, if it helped one person, i'm happy ^^

[Hreer]

an Amazing guide rep+

[omenra]

Thanks, I was considering doing another guide for the basics of transparent sigs...what do you guys think?

[steelwind18]

go ahead. one day ima get photoshop and come back and find these guides lol. i think that will be really helpfull.

[Hikorii]

Oh wow!
I just got a re-newed photoshop today~
And you did a really good tutorial ^^
Though I already did some self-experimentation before I saw your thread >_<

[okuuki]

XD maybe someday you could make a transparent siggy guide, I'm looking forward to read it anyway. :D
Anyway thankiez! >:3 +rep
<- is trying to make a new siggy :D

[steelwind18]

im right now attempting to use Paint.net so if anyone makes a guide bout that ill ++++ rep u lol. is that kinda close to PS?

[omenra]

I think I will do a guide soon on transparent sigs (or 'pop up' sigs as some people like to call them). Keep a look out for it ^^

And I have no idea if paint.net is like PS, as i have never used it before :/
But perhaps someone else knows?
Either way, searching for tutorials on google is a good way to go if no one else can help.

[EriAeris]

Is Adobe Photoshop free? jw...

[omenra]

Hehe. Technically, no.
But then again, with the internet, you can get almost anything free, if you catch my drift.

[EriAeris]

ummm... arrgh.. can't catch it! stop moving so fast!

ummm... sorry... I don't gets it :(

[omenra]

Well you can get PS by downloading it illegally. However, I will warn you, I have had friends who did that and got viruses that crashed their computers, and made them lose a lot of data.

[EriAeris]

Well you can get PS by downloading it illegally. However, I will warn you, I have had friends who did that and got viruses that crashed their computers, and made them lose a lot of data.

so did you download it illegally? or legally?

[omenra]

I got mine the legal way. However, if you do buy it, I would suggest looking around for the lowest price, as Photoshop can get expensive.

[azureangel]

This doesn't count as necroing...right? >.>

But the point is...

This is an awesome guide! It deserves to be above all those tutorials on the first page of those google results, that consist of around five steps and explain things as clear as mud. It was seriously informative, and clear enough for a complete nublet (like me) to understand. There needs to be more hype for this. =)

So I made my second ever signature with your guide, and the result was this:

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk18/xxazureangelxx/ZomgGoodSizing.jpg

Is it alright? I used GIMP because I don't want to waste money on photoshop until I'm slightly proficient at image-editing. I have no clue on how to get the shadow on the words since the options in GIMP are different...do you have any advice? ^-^

[vonartrix]

very detailed guide, this will help me make my first eva someday..... +rep too!:)

[omenra]

This doesn't count as necroing...right? >.>

But the point is...

This is an awesome guide! It deserves to be above all those tutorials on the first page of those google results, that consist of around five steps and explain things as clear as mud. It was seriously informative, and clear enough for a complete nublet (like me) to understand. There needs to be more hype for this. =)

So I made my second ever signature with your guide, and the result was this:

http://i276.photobucket.com/albums/kk18/xxazureangelxx/ZomgGoodSizing.jpg

Is it alright? I used GIMP because I don't want to waste money on photoshop until I'm slightly proficient at image-editing. I have no clue on how to get the shadow on the words since the options in GIMP are different...do you have any advice? ^-^

Wow it looks fantastic ^^
Sometimes you don't need shadowing on the words. In this case, it looks really great without the shadows.
The best advice I can give is to just keep making more, and keep it up ^^

[jam_tart]

need guide to transparent omenra!!!!! Need one badly! can't make my own lol thats whu you made mine ^_^

[jam_tart]

wait in 20 mins i experimented and made this!
I also made someothers usingthe same thing but diff effects hoping I could get so me input.
#1
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn254/gengachuka/photoshop%20creations/gengie2.png
#2
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn254/gengachuka/photoshop%20creations/gengie.png
#3
http://i306.photobucket.com/albums/nn254/gengachuka/photoshop%20creations/gengie3.png

Don't know which one is better cause I wanna send the best to gengachuka while she waits for Omenra to get to her siggy. (she being patient no rush)
Please give input anyone!

[tyman]

great guide thxs as soon as trial downloads im gona make me 1

[steelwind18]

it helpd me on some of my earlier ones. as u can see. lol nice work omen + rep

[r.kurisutofaa]

Very nice tutorial! =)

[jam_tart]

Well you can get PS by downloading it illegally. However, I will warn you, I have had friends who did that and got viruses that crashed their computers, and made them lose a lot of data.

ooo it's illegal to download it?
My dad never told me....
*whistles to self*

[mikejodeb123]

Holy necro :(..

[power_ness]

umm, cause gimp is said to be pretty much exactly the same as photoshop, how do you edit gradients? I can only select where each piece of the gradient ends, but still am stuck with only 2 colors, tried for about 10 minutes, is it possible to make one with more than 2 colors in gimp?

[ilovepink]

Awesome tutorial ^.^

[dark_anime]

O nice =D but it seems that people like certain genre, for ex, i like to make blood effect and know how to make realistic zombies effect =D
go here for more ways to edit you picture (http://www.outspark.com/forums/showthread.php?t=132182)

[ryu-ken]

good guide